


Stormy waters, to be free

by thedaughterofkings



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - No Hale Fire, Bodyguard Derek, M/M, Rich Stiles, Spoilt Stiles
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-03-20
Updated: 2014-09-26
Packaged: 2018-01-16 09:14:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 13,841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1341670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thedaughterofkings/pseuds/thedaughterofkings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stiles is a spoilt rich boy and Derek is his bodyguard. Unfortunately, this is no romcom nor even "Bodyguard".</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by [this tumblr post](http://helenish.tumblr.com/post/75541090648/marguerite26-encryptxd-and-this-someone) and something of a sequel to the ficlet there (which wasn't written by me, so I hope this is okay).

Stiles is well aware that his new bodyguard hates him. Hates him for being rich and spoilt and privileged. And yes, Stiles is all of those things, and he is well aware of that, but it’s not all he is and he is sick and tired of being judged and dismissed just because his dad made a fat load of money writing a novel about criminal masterminds based on his own experiences as a sheriff. And you know, if you can’t fight it, own it, so Stiles is determined to fulfill every cliché and be the most spoilt and annoying rich white boy he can be. He even wrangled a yacht out of his dad, although he guesses he broke his dumb spoilt boy with no feelings act by naming it after his mom and breaking down in tears when he and his dad baptized it with a few pumps of her favorite perfume – because no matter how rich they are now, his mom would have been appalled if they’d broken a bottle of champagne just to name a boat after her.

That boat is Stiles’ sanctuary and he hates, hates, _hates_ that he has to let this guy on it as well, who looks at it as though it was … Jabba the Hutt! Shut it, Stiles loves his Star Wars, okay? He’s already decided that the only proper way to reply if anyone ever tells him they love him (as if) is “I know”. That’s probably going to be the first and last time he’s going to hear “I love you” but it’s worth it, and he can’t imagine them really meaning it anyways, so it doesn’t really matter. The only person who ever told him they loved him regularly was his mom – he knows his dad loves him and he loves him, too, so much, but the Stilinski men are not really men of many words – yes, that might sound strange coming from him, but he has perfected the art of saying a lot without saying anything. He and his dad are actually more tactile. They hug a lot and they can only watch TV together if they cuddle. And there’s still the occasional night when he sleeps in his dad’s bed – both when he’s home and when he isn’t.

But yeah, his mom was the one with the talent for words, and the courage to speak them. And with her ashes poured into the ocean, this boat is where he feels closest to her, where it feels a bit as though she’s hugging, surrounding him again. And grumpy-face is really not who he wants to have along when he visits his mom. But after Jackson befriending him turned out to be purely because his father wanted to know if Stiles’ dad had any dirt on him and then creepy stalker Matt sending those vaguely threatening texts, his dad hadn’t wanted him alone on campus anymore and apparently anywhere else either. Hale even moved in with them!

When he’s where he wants to be – somewhere in what feels like the middle of the ocean, only surrounded by the waves and the stars, he shuts down the yacht and moves over to one of the chairs on the deck. He grabs his text book and wrapping himself in several blankets, settles down to read the required chapters. Hale is still standing like a glowering statue though, so he gesticulates at the rest of the blankets and says:

“Get a blanket and sit down or get inside! There’s no need to freeze of your balls staring at me like a creeper, it’s not as though anyone’s going to get at me here.”

Hale’s glower just intensifies and he stubbornly stays where he is.

Stiles throws up his arms in exasperation and mutters: “Suit yourself, it’s your problem if you get pneumonia and miss the test on Monday.”

\-----*-----*------*-----*-----*-----

Derek starts and stares at the boy already immersed in his reading. How did he know about his test on Monday? Or rather that Derek would take the same test as him? He’d been sure Stiles hadn’t realized they shared several classes, but apparently he’d been wrong. The surprise – and the very real threat of the test on Monday and even worse, missing it – makes him abandon his post and actually follow Stiles’ example and settle down for some reading wrapped in blankets on another sun chair. Although he deliberately choses the one furthest away from Stiles the boat isn’t actually that large, so there isn’t a lot of space between them. If he stretched out, his feet would be touching Stiles’ chair. Annoyed at himself for both noticing that and then for some reason fixating on it, Derek tucks his feet under his thighs and curls up facing as much away from Stiles as he can without turning the entire chair. He’d thankfully had his backpack still with him when Stiles decided that this trip was necessary right now, so he at least has his study materials with him and thus is able to do something productive rather than just twiddling his thumbs. Although he can probably forget about his reading for the class they have tomorrow as there is no way he is going to make it back to the library before it closes for the night. He stares longingly at the brand new copy Stiles is clutching before resolutely turning back to his battered copy of the book required for their Monday class which he’d been lucky enough to find in a Second Hand Shop for a few bucks. He is going to make it through his studies without relying on his daddy’s money and influence and he’ll just have to get up really early tomorrow to get to the library and back before Stiles wakes up and heads to his first class.

A sudden commotion at his back makes him turn around to check that Stiles hasn’t managed to go overboard while he hasn’t been watching. The way that guy stumbled and fell into and over things, it wouldn’t have surprised him if he’d managed to throw himself into the water while trying to scratch his nose. But no, he has just stood up, still wrapped in his blankets and rubbed his eyes tiredly. Stiles looks so much like a little lost boy right now that Derek is overcome with a heart-wrenching need to see his family again. He hasn’t had the money nor the time to spare to go visit them in far too long and he misses them, particularly his younger sibling right now. Cora is about Stiles’ age and Liam and Charlie are even younger and he hasn’t hugged them in months. While he’s been lost in thought, Stiles has apparently gone to the little kitchen below the deck and made coffee because he returns with a steaming mug – just one of course, why would he bring one for Derek as well. He’s still holding the brand new copy of the text book in his hand, Derek notices, before it’s suddenly chugged at him.

“Here, get rid of that when we are back. I spilt some coffee on it and need a new one.”

Derek stares at him in speechless astonishment when he makes his way back to the wheel and starts the boat again. He looks down at the book he reflexively called and carefully opens it. There is indeed a coffee stain, but it’s tiny and only on the front page where there’s no text anyways. How can anyone be _that_ spoilt?

\-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----

Stiles carefully doesn’t look back at Derek, at _Hale_. He’d noticed him staring at his book several times now and he’s also noticed that the guy was always in the library the night before some reading was due and never had a copy with him in class. And god, but that glowering face had some serious puppy dog game going on, he really doesn’t know how he manages it with those eyebrows. Long story short, Stiles hasn’t managed to turn his heart entirely into diamonds yet – ice can melt and after all diamonds are a girl’s best friends – and he knows they won’t be back in time for the dude to do his reading in the library tonight and so there might, _might_ have been some totally unintentional flailing and some very careful coffee spillage and oh god, his dad was going to kill him when he told him that he already needed a new copy of this crazily expensive text book – like seriously what did they make those pages out of?! Silk spun by butterflies fed with gold dust?! Anyways, he hopes the guy is intelligent enough to keep the “destroyed” copy; otherwise this will have been a sad waste of money and effort.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm hoping to perhaps continue this, but this felt like a good place to stop for now. I accidentally changed tenses half way through and though I did go back to correct that, I probably missed something, so please tell me of any mistakes you find!  
> Also, sorry if the title and summary made you expect something deep and dramatic and instead you got this... I don't know what happened there either. Feel free to complain on my [tumblr](http://www.thedaughterofkings.tumblr.com) as well  
> 


	2. Chapter 2

His dad indeed isn’t amused.

“What the hell happened to your original copy, Stiles? These things are insanely expensive, you know! Even if we’re rich now, it doesn’t mean that we have to throw the money away!”

Stiles ducks his head and mumbles: “I … spilt some coffee on it?”

His dad rubs a hand over his eyes.

“You spilt some coffee on it. How much coffee? It would have had to been a hell of a lot to make the book unreadable.”

Stiles blushes and stammers something about sugar and milk and toast and honey – “That’s a song, son, not an explanation.” – and finally succumbs to his father’s questioning eyebrow of doom.

“I gave it to Hale. Well, I gave it to Hale to throw away, but I sure hope he’s not dumb enough to actually do it.”

The sheriff – he’ll always be a sheriff to Stiles, even if he isn’t technically anymore – sighs and stares at Stiles incredulously.

“Derek? You spilt coffee on your horrendously expensive text book and then gave it to Derek? Why?”

Stiles blushes.

“Well, he didn’t have one…”

“And you wanted to make sure he got one? That’s nice of you, son, but why didn’t you just give it to him? Why did you have to spill coffee on it?”

John really doesn’t get how his son’s brain works sometimes. But his questions seem to have opened the flood gates and Stiles suddenly starts rambling.

“Because he hates me, dad! And he’s so damn stubborn and thinks he’s sooo much better than me just because we’re rich and he isn’t! And argh, I’m going to punch his perfect face one day – even if I’m going to break my hand on his cheekbones – if he keeps judging me with his eyebrows! And seriously, what’s with those eyebrows and glowers?! And dad, can’t we just pay Scott to come and live with us and keep people away from me? It worked fine in high school, no one wanted to talk to me there! I’m gonna become mad, if Hale keeps following me around!”

Stiles’ dad quickly interjects “Text book?” when Stiles has to take a breath to get him back on track.

“And yeah, the text book! Well, guess what, he’s also crazy devoted to his studies and always goes to the library to do the reading because he can’t afford the books – like seriously who makes those prices, are they high? And I went to visit mom today, and _someone_ told him to follow me always everywhere and well it takes some time to go out there and back and I obviously want to stay more than two minutes and we’ve got reading due tomorrow and he wouldn’t have made it back to the library before it closed and I could feel his glare on my back! Seriously, dad, you’ve got some bad taste in body guards, I’m sure this one wants to help rather than hinder any attempt on my life!”

“That still doesn’t explain how coffee got onto your text book and why you need a new copy now.”

“He’s got puppy dog eyes of doom! And combined with the glare of death, I was helpless! I had no choice, dad! So I finished my reading and then I went and made some coffee and I accidentally, totally accidentally, really dad! Spilt some coffee and then I gave it to Derek, I mean Hale, to throw away aka keep it and read it and that’s why I need a new copy. Puppy dog eyes and eyebrows, dad! It really wasn’t my fault!”

The sheriff sighs again and scrubs a hand over Stiles’ head.

“It’s alright, son, you’ll get your text book. But I still think that you should have just given it to him.”

Stiles pouts but then leans against his dad, silently asking for a hug.

“He probably would have bit my head off and then thrown the book into the sea. Now that would have been a real waste of money. Believe me, this was the best way, the only way.”

John sighs and tugs Stiles closer.

“If you say so. Now come on, I think there’s a Star Wars marathon on tonight.”

Stiles beams and squirms out of his embrace to run to the living room and throw himself onto the couch.

“You’re the best, dad! I love you!”

The sheriff grins and replies – already anticipating the high-pitched screeching that’s going to come: “I know.”

 

\-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----

 

When Derek’s finally home after an excruciatingly long day after the ridiculously late night he’d been forced to have by the little brat, he quickly turns on his computer. He promised Laura they’d skype tonight and he really doesn’t want to listen to her teasing if he’s late again. He calls her and is gratified that it takes her a bit to pick up the call. When her face finally shows up on his screen, he has to grin despite himself. It’s been too long since he saw any of his family in real life, but this is better than nothing, and he’d always been particularly close to Laura. She has her hair up in a messy bun, looking like a pirate with the sword letter opener she’s using to hold it up sticking out the side. Her eyes look tired and her make-up’s a little bit smeared as though she rubbed at them without thinking about it, but her mouth’s already lifting in a teasing smirk and her hands wave animatedly when she starts talking.

“How’s the boy wonder, Der-bear? Still alive?”

Derek rolls his eyes, but it’s a fond look that follows.

“Stop me calling me that, you know I hate it!”

“That’s what makes it so much fuuuun!” Laura sing-songs, twinkling back at him through the screen.

“But seriously, how is Stiles? Have you succumbed to your cravings yet?”

Derek stammers “What cravings?! What are you talking about?” but Laura ignores him – nothing new there – and keeps talking.

“You have to be gentle though, I read about the Jydia debacle again tonight and I think our bambi’s been seriously burned there!”

Derek really doesn’t get why Laura’s so fascinated by Stiles. It might just be that he’s the only other person besides her that can truly frazzle his calm. Whatever it is, she practically stalks him online – and with Stiles and his dad being something close to celebrities, she actually knows more about Stiles than him. Not that he wants to know any more about that guy, he already knows all that he needs to know.

A loud “Derek!” snaps him out of his thoughts. Laura seems to have finished and is now glaring at him.

“Sorry, lost in thought for a second. What was the last thing?” he quickly apologizes and hopes that she will let it rest.

Laura raises her eyebrows at him and then says: “I asked what you were doing last night that kept you up so late?” She follows this with a frankly disturbing waggle of her eyebrows.

“Get your mind out of the gutter, Laur. The brat just had to take a trip on his fancy yacht last night. And I still had to do my reading when we returned in the middle of the night.”

Laura’s grin slips slightly at that. She knows how important his classes are to him, how proud he is that he made it into this university.

“But doesn’t your library close at two? How late were you? Did you still make it to the library in time?”

“No, of course not, why ever would the brat be so considerate. But the craziest thing happened, like seriously. He wanted me to throw away his text book! Because he spilt a drop of coffee on it! Like can you even imagine being that spoilt?! These are over 300 $, Laura, and he just gets a new one because there’s a slight smudge on the title page! I obviously kept it and can at least do my reading at home now, but still, throwing it away is sooo ridiculous.”

Laura looks at him pensively and then quietly asks: “Do you think that might have actually been his intent?”

Derek stares at her in confusion.

“To make me dislike him even more? Well, good job then!”

“No,” Laura shakes her head and looks at him as though he disappointed her somehow. “I mean that you got the text book! Think about it, now you have a perfectly fine text book – for free at that! – and you can do your reading, and won’t have to rely on the library and the shitty copy there anymore! Perhaps that’s what he was trying to achieve! Perhaps this was his way of giving you his text book, because he knows you can’t afford it, but he can afford getting another copy!”

Derek snorts in derision.

“Stop reading fluffy fanfiction, Laura. There’s no way that he wanted me to have the book; he’s just that spoilt that his books have to be in pristine condition and that he can’t even be bothered throwing away his own litter. And anyways, I’m not some charity case, I wouldn’t have taken it, if he’d given it to me! I don’t need some rich boy to be my sugar daddy.”

Laura throws up her hands in exasperation.

“That’s exactly what I’m talking about! You’re so proud it’s making you blind! And I think he knows that and wanted to make sure you’d keep the copy – and don’t you dare throwing it away now, Derek Remus Hale, that’s no way to treat expensive text books you got for free. I wish you’d just talk to him, by what I read about him you might actually have some things in common, and you could use a friend over there, I don’t like that you’re all alone all the time.”

Great, now she looks as though she’s about to cry and that’s something Derek doesn’t know how to deal with even when he’s sitting next to her and can at least put an arm around her. But like this he can’t even do that and he’s really not good enough with his words to cheer her up by talking alone. Therefore he quickly tries to distract her by asking about Cora which thankfully makes her change the topic to their younger sister and her new boyfriend who’s apparently “an absolutely adorable puppy from the outside but a sarcastic little shit inside!” and thus absolutely perfect for Cora.

Derek smiles and nods when it’s required of him and listens with half an ear but most of his brain is occupied with thinking about what Laura speculated. What if she’s right? What if Stiles intentionally spilt the coffee and meant for him to keep the text book? Now that he thinks about it he might actually remember a little smile cropping up on Stiles’ face when he looked at Derek’s text book. He certainly didn’t have any sarcastic comments about it.

Derek carefully avoids thinking about what this might mean for his perception of Stiles. He is a spoilt rich little brat and that’s that. Him being – perhaps – nice – and in a very underhanded way at that! – for a change doesn’t make any difference.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woooh, I actually wrote more! And good news, I've got a pretty clear idea of where I want to go as well, so I'm hoping that updates won't take too long.
> 
> Again, this is un-betaed (and un-edited I've got to admit) so please tell me of any mistakes you find! (Or offer your services at a beta reader?)
> 
> You can always come visit me on [tumblr](http://www.thedaughterofkings.tumblr.com)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long but deadlines had to be met...

For all that he rolls his eyes, and glowers and complains – mostly to Laura – this job has one serious perk: he gets to drive the Camaro that the Stilinskis own almost every day – and it’s glorious. Seriously, Stilinski could have just bribed him with this car, no actual salary needed. Okay, the last one is a lie; Derek’s not well enough off for that; he needs that money. But being able to drive that car pretty much daily – several times usually at that – is one heck of a bonus.

What makes the experience even better is that the menace shuts up when they’re driving. No incessant nattering or whining while they are in the car. Actually, he shuts down completely. He doesn’t just stop talking, he stops fidgeting and his face which is usually so expressive – shut it, Derek’s got eyes, okay? That doesn’t mean anything – is completely blank while he stares out of the window. And Stiles point blank refuses to get behind the wheel. Not that Derek offered more than once, he’s not going to risk giving up this privilege, but the one time was telling enough. Stiles practically walked backwards when Derek asked him whether he wanted to drive that morning. They were ten minutes late because Derek had to promise Stiles that he would drive him and that Stiles wouldn’t have to get behind the wheel at any point. He’s not quite sure what the deal with that is, whether he just can’t drive, or whether he just doesn’t want to – probably because of some deep set trauma of an old lady stealing his space directly next to the entrance to a Starbucks or something.

Derek can practically see Laura’s disappointed face right now. The last thought didn’t even count as mean anymore; it was downright vicious. He isn’t sure why, but that kid just brings it out in him. And Derek isn’t mean, never mind vicious! He volunteers in the animal shelter! But the brat makes him stupid, and stubborn, … and something else starting with st- probably.

And his inner Laura can just shut it. It’s bad enough that the real Laura keeps teasing him and insinuating things; he doesn’t need her to do it inside his own mind as well. He’s perfectly fine and behaving perfectly reasonable, no matter what his big sister has to say about it.

 

\-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----

 

Stiles sighs and starts banging his head on the table. He doesn’t get more than two bangs in though before a small but surprisingly strong hand borrows itself in his hair and sharply tugs his head upwards.

“Ouch! Lydia, that hurt!”

The strawberry blond goddess across from him just smirks and says:

“It was supposed to. This is a library, Stiles, and we are supposed to keep reasonably quiet – and the loud banging sound produced when your empty head meets the table is not reasonably quiet.”

Stiles pouts and rubs his head – all over, because great, now everything hurts. And yes, it’s his own fault, he knows, thank you and he knows he can be a whiny three-year old – and what the hell is Derek Hale doing in his head now? It’s bad enough that he has to see him almost 24/7; he really doesn’t need his judgmental commentary in his head now as well.

A pointed cough draws him out of his thoughts. Lydia looks as though she’s about to tap her foot and he can’t let it come to that, countries might fall. No, seriously, Stiles is convinced that she is the female, American equivalent to James Bond and that she actually has the power to destroy countries. He quickly tries to distract her.

“Can I borrow your text book for our Friday morning class this week? My new copy hasn’t arrived yet.”

Lydia raises one perfectly coifed eyebrow and asks:

“New copy? So you actually gave it to Hale? It wasn’t just borrowed?”

Stiles feels himself start to blush and splutters:

“Borrowed? Hale? What?”

Lydia takes pity on him and interrupts him before he can start again.

“Well, Hale _obviously_ had your copy on Friday, and I had just assumed that you had lend it to him so that he could do his reading after you made him miss the library opening hours on Thursday. But apparently it was a more permanent gift. I’m just surprised he accepted it; he’s just so ridiculously proud.”

Stiles just stares at her for a second. He knows that Lydia’s always scarily well informed – that Bond theory isn’t based on nothing after all – and with him not having a copy on Friday and Derek suddenly having one, that part wasn’t that hard to suss out. But how did she know about Thursday night? Did she have him followed? But _why_?!

Lydia just rolls her eyes and pats his hand.

“Don’t break your pretty little head. Jack-, _someone_ saw you and Derek Hale on the _Claudia_ and told me about it.”

There it is; the reason why almost every conversation with Lydia becomes awkward at some point: Stiles’ point blank refusal to have anything to do with Jackson Whittemore. Coupled with Lydia’s just as vehement refusal to break up with him, it has made things very awkward between them. The first few months after the whole debacle were filled with fights and arguments. After Jackson had screwed him so royally – not literally though, eurgh – Stiles hadn’t even wanted to be in the same room as him. With Lydia and Jackson still a couple, this meant that he suddenly spent a lot of time alone, as he’d leave the room every time Jackson joined him and Lydia. It took many negotiations and Stiles witnessing the harsh dressing down Jackson got from Lydia to get them to this point. This point basically being Lydia splitting her time between them. It’s not ideal and Stiles knows he might be acting unreasonably, but it works for them, so he doesn’t care. He and Lydia have fixed lunch dates, just as Jackson and Lydia have fixed dinner dates. Just, you know, the lunch dates aren’t actually dates, Stiles does love her and he might even have something of a crush on her, but it’s more a “I want to be you” rather than a “I want to be _with_ you” crush. Neither guy crashes the other’s Lydia time and if they accidentally meet, they just ignore each other now.

Still, as Lydia’s boyfriend, Jackson crops up in the conversations pretty regularly, and the topic changes are often less than smooth. As he’s afraid that Lydia’s going to focus back on him giving his text book to Hale, Stiles quickly makes a big deal of checking the time and then – with such badly faked surprise that Lydia just rolls her eyes – says:

“Oh would you look at the time! We’ve got to make our way back now, otherwise we’ll be late!”

Thankfully it is actually about time for them to go, so Lydia doesn’t kick up a fuss and lets him be for now. But he’s sure that a discussion about rivers in Egypt is in his near future, and Egypt is where they can stay as far as Stiles is concerned.

 

\-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----

 

Stiles had only tried running away once – well getting away from Derek once. Unfortunately for him, Derek has Cora. And Cora is creepily good at finding people with the computer. Derek doesn’t ask; he plans to claim no knowledge of this at all if she ever gets arrested for any of it. But however she did it, she texted him an address within fifteen minutes. And indeed, when Derek drove there, he found Stiles – sitting in the park, reading a book and taking the time with his phone! He only looked up when Derek stood directly in front of him, blocking out the sun and said with an obnoxious smirk: “What took you so long?”

When Derek opened his mouth to let out an entire tirade, Stiles just flapped his hand at him and said: “Oh calm down. How else was I supposed to know how long it would take you to find me if I ever end up kidnapped? Don’t worry, I won’t demand statistically relevant results.”

True to his word, he hadn’t tried to slip out of Derek’s sight again.

Thus, when Derek gets up the next morning and doesn’t find Stiles singing loudly in the kitchen, nor in his room when he goes to knock there, he feels himself starting to panic. A frantic search of the entire house doesn’t turn up anything either. It just makes him panic even more because it doesn’t look as though anyone’s slept in any bed other than his own. He’s about to call Cora and ask her to track down Stiles when he remembers the garage and goes to check whether any of the cars are missing first.

They are all there, but when he comes to the one hidden in the far back corner he hears a quiet sound. That car doesn’t really match the others; the rest of them are more like the Camaro, cars for showing off. But this one is a blue Jeep, looking a bit old and beat up.

And on its back seat, there’s Stiles. He’s curled up under a blanket that looks old and ratty but in a well-loved way. It seems to have been self-made and it’s not really thick. Derek can see Stiles shivering beneath it.

When he quietly opens the door, he notices that Stiles has dried tear tracks on his cheeks and that his lips are chapped and even a bit bloody in two spots as though he repeatedly bit into them to hold back loud sobs.

Derek swallows thickly. This really doesn’t fit into the image of the spoilt brat who doesn’t have any real worry in the world that he’d had of Stiles. Slowly, as though approaching an easily spooked animal – even though Stiles still seems to be fast asleep – he stretches his hand out towards the messy hair that’s falling into Stiles eyes. When he carefully sweeps the bangs away, the long lashes that he’d done his best to ignore before fluttered against cheeks flushed red with sleep, but Stiles doesn’t wake up. He doesn’t even wake up when Derek carefully picks him up bridal style and carries him back to the house and lays him down in his bed.

He only reacts when Derek covers him with his blankets and tugs him in slightly. With a quietly whispered “Night Mom, love you” he catches Derek’s hand and gives it a light kiss.

Derek feels his heart miss a beat and stands there stock still for several moments, waiting for Stiles to jump up in bed and point and laugh at him. But he only turns around, wrapping himself more tightly in his blankets and seems to slip into deeper sleep.

Derek quietly sneaks out of the room to call Lydia and Erica with whom they share all of today’s classes. He tells them that he and Stiles won’t make it to classes today and asks them to take notes for them in the respective classes they have together. He quickly hangs up before either of them manage to get a question that he doesn’t know how to answer himself right now.

His heart is still beating far too quickly – and even at the risk of sounding like one of the romance trash novels that Laura claims to read ironically but actually loves terribly – his hand is still tingling where Stiles had kissed it. H tries blaming it on adrenaline because of the kidnapping scare, but he can practically hear Laura laughing like a hyena in his head about the Nile and rivers not in Egypt. With an overly dramatic sigh – no one’s here to witness it and he’s about to reevaluate his entire image of Stiles, he’s allowed some dramatics – he sinks down onto the couch and closes his eyes to think.

He’ll freely admit that he’s great at ignoring and purposefully misunderstanding things, but despite that, he’s not in the habit of full on lying to himself. And if he keeps telling himself that he hates Stiles and that he truly believes that Stiles is a terrible, spoilt little brat with no brain and no heart and no soul, he’ll be doing exactly that. Instead, he’s going to use his unexpectedly free morning for a heart to heart with himself. And perhaps call Laura and ask for her help – even if she’ll be unbearably smug.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, this is unbeta'd, so if you find any mistakes, please tell me! Or if you were willing to beta-read this for me I'd be ever so grateful! Just send me an ask on [tumblr](http://www.thedaughterofkings.tumblr.com)
> 
> There's some stuff I really like about this chapter and some that just doesn't feel quite right, so it'd be lovely to hear what you thought!


	4. Chapter 4

When Stiles wakes up, he’s far more comfortable than he expected.

Yesterday had been the anniversary of his mom’s death and his dad hadn’t been able to be there. They usually spend it curled up on the couch together, marathoning Star Trek and basically trying to ignore it.

But this year his dad hadn’t been able to come home in time and Stiles hadn’t managed to keep himself distracted alone. This was a new house, one his mom had never lived in, had never touched and while he usually was glad about it because he wasn’t continuously reminded of her. But now, now it was unbearable.

The only thing that was hers was the old Jeep in the back of the garage, the one that was supposed to be his when he was old enough to drive. Well, that certainly didn’t work out as planned.

In a desperate attempt to feel at least a bit closer to her, he slips out a few hours after Derek has disappeared in his room and creeps into the garage, carefully feeling his way through the cars in the dark. When he reaches the blue Jeep, he crawls onto the backseat, picking up the threadbare blanket his mom made for him as a baby and falls asleep wrapped in it.

But instead of waking up cold and sore, he wakes up warm and comfortable in his own room. It’s shortly after noon and the sun is bathing his room in a warm light. Stiles slowly sits up, scrubbing his eyes and the dried, itching tear tracks on his cheeks.

How did he… oh god had Derek…? And did that mean he’d…

Madly flailing to see whether he’s still dressed, he just manages to wrap himself even more tightly in his blankets and with a loud bang he’s suddenly on the floor in front of his bed. While he’s still trying to untangle himself, his door flies open – seriously, it bangs against the wall and everything – and a panting Derek Hale follows through. He’s got the most amazing case of bed hair – it look as though someone had been vigorously tugging at it for hours, and no, Stiles is not going to keep going along that track of thought – and bright blotches of color high on his cheeks. The entire situation is so ridiculous that Stiles just lets himself fall back again and starts laughing. Derek just stares at him for a long minute before he joins in, seemingly despite himself.

Sitting on his floor, wrapped up in warm blankets and laughing with his usually so stern body guard is a much better way to start his day than he thought he’d have.

 

\-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----

 

Things change after that. When Derek makes the mistake of telling Laura about his theory that it made him see Stiles as human, what with him finally showing feelings other than the proverbial dollar signs as eyes, Laura seriously laughs so hard, she falls off her chair.

And then Derek has to listen to both of his sisters laughing like hyenas because Laura immediately phones Cora while still on skype with him. In between loud guffaws of laughter she somehow manages to convey the entire story to Cora. Derek has no idea how Cora understands anything, the only words he can make out were his name, “robot”, “accusing others of feelings” and “poor baby”. Somehow he doesn’t think the last one is about him. Both of his sisters are scarily obsessed with his client.

Laura must have put Cora on speaker phone at some point because Derek can suddenly hear her say:

“So, Derek who has exactly two different facial expressions in public – grumpy and grumpier – accused someone else of showing no feelings and complained about him being a robot.”

Laura nods and – probably realizing that Cora can’t see her through the phone – makes some sort of strange snorting noise which seems to make sense to Cora – it certainly doesn’t to Derek but he’s given up on trying to understand his sisters – because it’s back to double screeches of laughter. Derek really hates his life sometimes. He’s opening his heart here and his confidantes answer with laughter.

He turns down his volume a bit and settles in with his new textbook to get a head start on the new reading assignment while he waits for Laura and Cora to calm down and remember that he’s here. He’d hang up but Derek’s learned the hard way that you don’t hang up on Laura Hale. Somehow she’d manage to make him pay even across states.

When it looks as though things have calmed down on the other end of the skype call, Derek turns his volume back up and clears his throat to catch Laura’s – and Cora’s – attention.

“Okay, any actual comments or advice?” he asks with one eyebrow raised in silent judgment of his sisters’ behavior.

Laura looks slightly apologetic at least and finally answers seriously.

“Well, you know that I think that you’ve stubbornly stuck to your assumptions and that it’s about time you looked beyond the obvious façade Stiles is putting up. I think it might do both of you good to have someone you don’t have to pretend with. Someone besides family, I mean.”

Derek can’t help his eyebrows rising skeptically. Façade? Pretend? He’s not sure Laura’s on the right track here. To be fair though, he’s neither sure that his view of Stiles, the spoilt kid is entirely correct anymore either.

Curled up with tear tracks on his face, he didn’t much resemble the sarcastic snobby little shit that made Derek’s life hell on a daily basis. Neither did he seem particularly stuck up when he sat in front of his bed, tangled in his blankets with pillow lines on his cheeks. And he hadn’t acted stuck up either.

This time it’s Laura who clears her throat pointedly when Derek gets lost in thought.

“I can see the little cogs whirring up there -” Laura starts.

“Careful, you’ll break something!” Cora interrupts her and just giggles when Derek shoots “Brat!” back at her.

Laura sighs the sigh of big sisters with younger siblings everywhere and clears her throat again. Derek can’t resist the temptation and says:

“May I offer you a cough drop, Dolores?” which makes Cora laugh out loud and Laura accidentally swallow her breath. That actually makes her cough which in turn makes Cora laugh harder and Derek grin cheekily.

When she has her breath back Laura glares at Derek and growls at Cora who after all can’t see her. Derek assumes that she’s aiming to sound like a wolf but it sounds more like a kitten with a sore throat and really not all that threatening.

And kittens make him think of big eyes and cute noses and moles and – what the hell?! He’s spaced out thinking about Stiles again and this is just getting ridiculous.

Laura looks at him as though she knows exactly what he was thinking about – a smirk that is both teasing and so very judging. When she raises her eyebrow at him, he just rolls his eyes and tries not to blush.

“You were going to say something, Laura?”

She just rolls her eyes back at him and says: “I think I’ve said enough. And I do think that you are finally ready to think as well. I know that’s hard for you –” Cora snorts loudly in the background “– but do try it. And just try talking to Stiles – I know, I know, even harder – and then you can make an informed decision about why you don’t like him – or why you might. But that’s enough soul searching talk for today, tell me more about Erica and Boyd’s glacial mating dance! Has either of them made a move yet?”

And the rest of the call is spent with what can’t be called anything but gossiping with his sisters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry about the long wait! I'll try not to take as long between updates again...
> 
> Also sorry about the lack of Stiles in this chapter, but at least there's Laura and Cora?
> 
> I've got three different AUs in my head right now so I might be mixing things up. Please tell me if you discover any inconsistencies or other mistakes!  
> As always, feel free to bother me on [tumblr](http://www.thedaughterofkings.tumblr.com)


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is for the lovely anon, whose comment got me to finally write another chapter!

Scott is still his best friend, his brother. They really don’t see each other often enough – by far! But they text and skype and call each other all the time and thus Stiles gets to hear it all – in excruciating detail – when Allison Argent enters the picture. Stiles is sometimes secretely glad that he and his dad had already moved away by the time Allison transfers to Beacon Hills High – not because she isn’t awesome! But because she is almost too awesome and Stiles knows he’s awesome too, but … yeah. Scott’s entire world shifted when Allison came into it. Stiles gets it, he really does, first girlfriend and a kickass gorgeous warrior princess at that! But it probably would have meant a bigger shift for their friendship, if he’d been still leaving in Beacon Hills, the two of them in each other’s pockets. This way, the separation came earlier, and with no possible resentment from either side – because Stiles knows he can be a jealous and possessive douche and suddenly having to share Scott would have probably brought it all out in him.

Instead, the only marked change is that a lot of their conversations are suddenly on topics like Allison’s eyelashes, and dimples, and smell. And it’s all amazing and perfect and Stiles is just waiting for the other shoe to drop.

And it does drop after graduation – but not because of separation anxiety and the problems of long distance relationships. If that had been the case, Stiles would have been able to help – he’s a perfect example for Scott being capable of keeping a long distance relationship going – strictly platonic, get your minds out of the gutter.

But the problem aren’t Scott and Allison, it’s all Allison’s parents. Because Scott was good enough for a high school romance for their precious little baby girl, but now she’s supposed to strive for bigger things – and Scott, with his plan to become a veterinarian is just a little bug she’s supposed to trample on her way up. The Argents are one of those dynasties that are as close to royalty as America gets – not quite Kennedy material, but not far off either. And Allison, with an army of influential relatives behind her is “destined for great things!” Seriously, that’s her mom speaking.

But Allison throws an absolute temper tantrum when they try telling her she can’t see Scott anymore. Complete with throwing dishes and moving out in a rage – and in with Scott incidentally. They grudgingly accept that they can’t rule her life then.

It’s really Scott though, that saves the day and gets them to accept him. He meets up with Chris and Victoria and earnestly reassures them that he doesn’t intend to hold Allison back in any way and that once he’s a fully licensed veterinarian he’s willing to move with her wherever she wants to go – “after all, people have cats and dogs everywhere, don’t they?”

After that, it doesn’t take him long to win them over – which doesn’t surprise Stiles, because only someone who has no heart could hate Scott. And as stuck up as the Argents are, they aren’t bad people.

The same can’t be said though for Allison’s grandfather and her aunt. When Scott first met Allison and started singing her praises, Stiles went on a researching spree. This is his best friend in the whole wide world and while Scott is certainly not as dumb as he himself sometimes believes himself to be, he can be a bit naïve. He’s always expecting the best of people, which – while a recommendable and admirable quality is the exact opposite of Stiles who always expects the very worst. And thus, he checks out the Argent family, using a hell of a lot of google and – okay, the police criminal records he’s not supposed to have access to. And while most of the family is just a bit dubious in the way most of those influential dynasties are, Gerard and Kate Argent are apparently bat shit crazy. Seriously, the list of crimes they are suspected of together is creepily long – and worse, they hadn’t had to pay for anything! The name Argent apparently went a long way with keeping them out of court and therefore jail.

Stiles seriously hopes to never meet them and is absurdly glad that Chris has mostly cut all contact with his father and sister because that means Scott will probably never meet them either.

 

\-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----

 

The next few weeks pass much more pleasantly than the ones before. Derek does follow Laura’s advice – and she’s unbearably smug about it – and tries talking to Stiles.

He starts with easy, impersonal things: their shared classwork, that Erica and Boyd finally decided to make a step forward – at the same time which produced a hilarious conversation for everyone but the two of them – and random little things like favorite comic book heroes. Although he quickly finds out that the latter is anything but easy and impersonal with Stiles. They spend hours arguing about their favorites. Derek’s is Batman – “of course it’s the dark, brooding solitary guy with you!” – and Stiles proclaims that he can’t be forced to choose between his children because he loves them all equally.

That shocks a laugh out of Derek who finds himself wondering why he likes this guy which is followed by the realization that he _does_ actually like Stiles. This is not as surprising as he thought it would be. When he shakes it off and looks back up at Stiles, he’s staring at him with his mouth open.

“What?”

“Dude, you just laughed! I’ve never seen you laugh! Well, you did laugh when I fell out of bed – mean by the way! But never at one of my jokes!”

Derek feels himself blushing but then deadpans: “Those were jokes?”

Stiles splutters for a few seconds but then grins and claps him on the shoulder.

“Look at you! It’s like you’re a real boy! All laughter and even jokes today!”

Derek’s face is getting hotter and he knows his blush is becoming ever more visible. He wishes that he could think of a witty comeback but he can’t even think of a lame one and instead just looks back at Stiles with an eyebrow raised in what hopefully looks like silent judgment and not confusion, waiting for what Stiles will come up with next.

Stiles manages to surprise him yet again because he reaches across the table between them and tries to drag his brow back down.

“You and your eyebrows! Do you grow a monobrow when you try telling lies?”

All the while he’s still poking at Derek’s face. When he starts plucking at his stubble, Derek quickly snatches his hand away from his face.

“You should have seen Laura’s brows before she firmly whacked them into form! If you’re a good boy, I might show you some pictures!”

Instead of earning him a laugh as he’d hoped, this apparently makes Stiles inhale his milkshake down the wrong pipe which results in an epic coughing and hacking fest which attracts the attention of the entire student union café they’re sitting in.

Most of them just shake their heads and grin before focusing back on their friends or work, but there’s one blonde woman who keeps looking at them. Derek doesn’t really notice her at first because he’s busy with plying Stiles with napkins and alternatively stroking and smacking his back to ease his coughs. He only takes note of her because his job is to be aware of Stiles’ surroundings and any inconsistencies and she is quite a few years older than pretty much anyone else in the café. He’s distracted by Stiles noisily slurping up the rest of his drink though, once his coughing fit has eased and when he looks back up she’s gone.

With Stiles starting to babble a mile a minute – probably out of embarrassment, so Derek doesn’t tease him about it – much, he quickly forgets all about her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, unbetaed so please tell me if you find any mistakes! 
> 
> Wooh, we're finally getting a hint at some action actually happening! 
> 
> Feel free to bug me on [tumblr](http://www.thedaughterofkings.tumblr.com) for updates as well.


	6. Chapter 6

Derek’s back in the café a few days later though on his own this time. Stiles has his weekly lunch date with Lydia which “is sacred and not to be interrupted!!!!!!! And anyway, if she wanted to kidnap me you wouldn’t stand the slightest chance and neither does anyone else! So shoo, go brood over some overpriced French peppermint tea with licorice in it for an hour. I’ll call you when we’re done.”

Derek hates to do as Stiles told him so, but he really can’t resist the peppermint tea. But he’s not brooding dammit! He’s reading in ~~his~~ ~~Stiles’~~ ~~their~~ _his_ book and for once not at all aware of his surroundings.

“Is anyone sitting here?”

A voice that’s suddenly speaking to his right manages to startle him enough that he almost throws over his cup of tea. When he makes a grab for it, he instead grabs a slender pale hand which got there first.

“Careful, tiger! Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you, thought you’d notice me!”

The hand beneath his carefully tilts his cup back up and then slowly slides out from underneath his. Just before they lose all contact there’s a quick swipe of a thumb against his pulse points.

Derek can feel himself blushing and he doesn’t even know why.

He finally takes a look at whomever surprised him and starts again. It’s that woman from a few days ago when Stiles had his coughing fit here.

She seems to mistake his surprise though and winks at him and then folds herself into the chair next to him. Somehow she manages to both present her long legs, her cleavage and her disturbingly feral grin.

“Hi, gorgeous, I’m Kate.”

She tilts her head at him in a way that’s obviously meant to entice him to tell her his name in return but Derek can freely admit that he is a suspicious man – both by nature and because of his job – and this is just too much of a coincidence. He thus just gives her his best emotionless “hi.” and finds himself imagining the peals of laughter that would be coming from Stiles right now if he were here.

Her grin slips for a fraction of a second, only to return in full force. She leans closer to him, pushing her breasts against his right arm and putting her hand high upon his thigh.

“Oh, I can see how it is! You’re the strong and silent type. That works for me; I don’t mind calling the shots!”

Derek is starkly reminded of a conversation he’d had with Stiles just the day before. They’d been teasing each other, Stiles chattering at the speed of lightning and Derek giving dead pan monosyllabic answers. After a while though, Stiles sobered and slowly let his hand creep forward so that their fingers touched on the table between them. He earnestly made sure to look into Derek’s eyes as he said:

“You know I’m just kidding, right? I don’t mind that you’re the strong and silent type, rather the opposite! I talk enough for two, so that works out just fine! I just…”

Here he’d stumbled over his words for a moment, before stubbornly trudging on.

“I just want you to know that I can listen as well if you ever wanted to talk! About whatever, man, I’m not saying I think that you’ve got any skeletons hidden in your closet and need to relieve your heart or anything! Actually don’t tell me that, I’d have to tell my dad and he’d have to arrest you and I don’t want you to go to jail! But yeah,” he ducks his head and blushes. “You can talk and I can listen if you want.”

Although the two conversations sound similar – down to both Kate and Stiles calling him “the strong and silent type”, the sentiment is completely different. And whereas Stiles’ offer of listening made him turn his hand underneath Stiles’ and squeeze his fingers quickly in thanks, Kate’s hint? offer? of dominating him makes him slide his chair a bit to the side to get away from her.

She lets him, her grin sharpening even further.

“Ooooh and he’s shy, too! That’s so cute, puppy!”

All the nicknames are seriously starting to freak Derek out and he begins gathering the markers and pens he’s spread over the table. When he wants to grab his book as well it’s no longer in front of him. With a sinking feeling in his stomach, he looks up to find it in Kate’s hand.

She's looking at both sides in turn, deliberately slowly, Derek is sure. Then she flicks it open and the grin that’s growing again on her face doesn’t bode well for Derek.

“Well, well, well, what do we have here? It seems I’ll learn your name today after all, you suspicious young thing!”

Derek stares at her in confusion for a few moments before he remembers that Stiles had put his name on the title page and Derek had added his own when he’d gotten the book. And in a fit of he doesn’t even know what himself, he hadn’t crossed out Stiles’ name but just added his own. But no, he hadn’t put a heart around their names, whatever Laura said. It had just seemed … disrespectful to cross out Stiles’ name, okay? But that means that Kate now knows both of their names and somehow Derek doesn’t think that that is a good thing.

“Let’s see… which one are you? I have seen wittle Stiles hiding behind his father on TV before and while he has grown up quite nicely – those lips are just dreamy! – you are certainly something else! That means you must be _Derek_!”

The way she says his name sends shivers down his back – and not of the good kind. Derek just grunts non-committally and quickly snatches his book from her hands and shoves it into his backpack. He’s just glad he didn’t add his phone number on the first page as well as he almost did. That book is expensive and if he ever were to lose it, he wants the best chance possible that he’ll get it back.

Kate’s grin has frozen; making it all the more obvious that it had never reached her eyes. Before she can say anything or touch him again, he stands up and throws his backpack over one shoulder. He doesn’t really _try_ to hit her, but he can’t find it in himself to feel any remorse for smacking her hand that was just about to reach out for him again.

Derek quickly mutters an obviously insincere “sorry” and then starts walking away, throwing a mumbled “gotta go” over his shoulder. He doesn’t go directly to his car, instead circling around two blocks and back to make sure she isn’t following him. He’s well aware that that might be a bit excessive, but she really freaked him out and he doesn’t want to take any chances. After all it’s not just his life on the line, but Stiles’ as well, and that one he’s not willing to risk.

 

\-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----

 

Lydia rolls hers eyes.

Somehow it looks elegant when she does it, Stiles really doesn’t know how that works. Even Derek looks a little bit weird when he rolls his eyes at Stiles’ latest antics. And really, Stiles didn’t think there was anything that could make that man look any less than heart-stoppingly gorgeous. Even his glare is hot!

Lydia rolls her eyes again.

Stiles blushes and barks out: “What.”

Oops, maybe he has spent a bit too much time with Derek.

Lydia raises an eyebrow and only deigns to answer him when he ducks his head and mumbles “sorry”. Her grin is at the same time shark-like and very sweet.

“Things are going well, I take it?”

Stiles’ cheeks keep getting hotter and hotter and Lydia’s grin grows accordingly. Damn his complexion that shows everything.

“I … I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He tries to weasel his way out of her interrogation. But a desperate glance at his watch tells him to just lie down like a man and take it, because there’s still too much time left for him to use the excuse of being late for class again.

Her second eyebrow joins its brother.

“Okay, okay, okay, I’m talking! Yes, things are going well, we talk and I’m only fifty percent sure he hates me most of the time. So there, pack the judgey eyebrows away, will you?”

Lydia smiles the smile of Disney princesses that could do no harm everywhere and says: “There you go, that wasn’t too hard, was it? But I want details!”

Stiles throws up his arms in exasperation.

“There’s no details to give, woman! Sorry, sorry!” He backtracks at the glare thrown his way.

“But, no seriously, we are just … talking! About tea and super heroes and Cora’s latest boyfriend who is obviously not good enough for her and whether Laura should dye her hair green – Derek’s actually all for it, can you imagine that! All of her long, beautiful hair! That would take ages to grow back out! I actually think he’s mostly for it because he’s hoping for blackmail material. What are you looking at me like that? You’re freaking me out!”

Lydia just keeps smiling at him gently, ignoring the hands flailing at her and the fingers poking her cheeks.

“I’m just happy that you seem to be happy and that Derek seems to make you happy. I know we don’t talk about the thing with Jackson and I know that _you_ know that I am so not okay with what happened then and that Jackson knows that as well! Intimately! But really, for a bit I was afraid it had truly changed you, not necessarily for worse, but not really for better either. And it just makes me happy to see that the old Stiles is still in there and that Derek brings him out – the best and the worst!”

Stiles ducks his head to hide his wetter than usual eyes.

“Thanks Lyds. I do know that and I do know that you care but it’s nice to hear it anyways. And who knows, someday we might even talk about that Jackson thing!”

When Lydia opens her mouth to reply to that he quickly adds: “The day that Jackson says ‘sorry’, that is!”

Lydia smirks and says: “You’re going to rue those words one day! I know you think he’s incapable of saying that, but never underestimate my powers of persuasion!”

Stiles dramatically clutches at his heart.

“Milady! I never would!”

Lydia playfully swats at him and regally replies: “You better not, Sir Stilinski!”

She promptly loses her composure and starts giggling when Stiles really clutches at his heart and stares at her with comically wide eyes.

“You’d make me a _knight_??!!!”

“I’d make you court jester, you big dolt!”

“But that’s even better! Those were actually often the regents most trusted advisors! They were the only people allowed to criticize the monarchs under the protection of comedy! You have just given me permission to criticize you, Lydia Martin! I promise to treat this gift the way it deserves to be treated! Starting right now! Speaking of simpletons: that paramour of yours, milady, I’m sorry to say…”

“Oh shut up!” Lydia interrupts him quickly.

Stiles grins at her.

“Scared of the truths I might tell you, milady?”

Lydia shoves him lightly and tweaks his ear, prompting some more flailing.

“All too aware of the truths you’d tell me, my dear, so no need to act like a little know-it-all.”

“Takes one to know one!” Stiles sing-songs.

The last ten minutes pass quickly with similar light-hearted teasing and when it’s time to go back to class, Lydia hugs him tightly and whispers into his ear: “I really am happy that you’re happy and if he doesn’t make you happy anymore, I know some very painful ways of removing a man’s primary reproductive organs from his body.”

With this threat against Derek – which Stiles is sure is supposed to keep him in line as well – and a last kiss on his cheek, Lydia struts away like the queen she is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry again for the wait!  
> The second half gave me problems, so please let me know how you liked it!
> 
> Also, wow! I've written over 10 000 words in this universe! That is a first for me and honestly pretty incredible!
> 
> Feel free to talk to me on [tumblr](http://www.thedaughterofkings.tumblr.com)!  
> 


	7. Chapter 7

Things keep going well over the next few weeks. Stiles and Derek keep talking, teasing and yes, also annoying each other. But while Derek still has an urge to get his hands on that neck, it’s no longer because he wants to throttle Stiles (most of the time).

Things keep getting weirder though as well.

That woman, Kate, turns up again and again. At first it’s just at the café where he first met her. But then Derek sees her around campus as well, talking to students and professors. She hasn’t approached him when he’s with Stiles so far but she keeps staring and he’s seriously freaked out.

Derek hasn’t been back to the café on his own because he didn’t want to chance meeting her again. Which is why he has to suffer through this truly atrocious cup of tepid water. Seriously, this is as close to tea as Fanta is to freshly squeezed orange juice. He chances another sip, shudders, and sets the cup down on the grass next to him – far away from his class material spread out in front of him.

“What’s that frown for, sunshine? Tea gone cold?” a voice suddenly comes from behind him.

Derek just closes his eyes and bites down a sigh. It’s Kate; of course it’s Kate. He’s drinking bad tea to avoid her and she finds him anyways. He must have done something terrible to deserve this. His inner Laura immediately starts listing possible sins, starting with “not appreciating the gloriousness that is Stiles Stilinski enough” and woah, okay that isn’t Laura, since when does he have an inner Stiles?

While he’s been caught up in his own thoughts, Kate has settled down next to him, pressed along his left side. He really needs to stop getting lost in his head when she’s near him – not in _that_ way! God, his inner Stiles is as much a pervert as the real one is. Which … might be saying more about his own brain actually…

A slightly obnoxious giggle drags him out of his thoughts.

“What’s got you so occupied, baby? Anything I can help you with?”

Derek really doesn’t know how this woman manages to turn everything into a sleazy innuendo; it sure is a gift.

“No, I’m just studying and I really should get back to that,” he tries to cut of the conversation before she can really get going.

“Oh, but all work and no play makes puppy a dull boy! I’m sure you need a break! Why don’t you come with me and we’ll … make sure you get some exercise?”

Her tongue flickers over her bright red lips in what is surely meant to be seductive but Derek’s so thoroughly crept out already that it only makes him think of blood and fire.

“No, I can’t! I’ve … got to go, my girlfriend,” he frantically tries to think of a name. “Laura!”

Kate’s pretty face has frozen.

“Oh, _Laura_? Who’s she then, I’ve never seen her around?”

The contempt when she says Laura’s name is clearly audible and Derek, offended on Laura’s behalf and completely overseeing and indeed ignoring that Kate really shouldn’t know with whom he usually interacts, starts talking.

“Oh, we’re in a long distance relationship, but she’s coming to visit next week! And I’ve still got loads to prepare, so see you!”

And with that he once again beats a quick retreat, gathering all of his stuff in his arms – probably losing a few pens and highlighters in the process – and hightails it out of there.

He doesn’t even know what it is, but she seriously scares him. Derek hopes telling her he has a girlfriend will get her off his back because what would he tell anyone? There’s this pretty woman that’s interested in me and she freaks me out? He might as well become a comedian, that’s going to get him less laughs.

 

\-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----

 

Stiles runs around the house in a complete panic.

“Where are our fresh sheets? We must have fresh sheets around here somewhere! Laura can’t sleep in dusty old sheets! The guest bed room’s been used in … never! The sheets are going to suffocate her with dust bunnies and dead moths!”

On his next path in front of the couch – perhaps someone put the sheets behind their DVDs? – Stiles’ foot catches on something and he stumble flail flies onto the couch.

Well, actually he falls on Derek who’s sitting on the couch. And it was Derek’s foot he stumbled over! He _tripped_ him! _Rude_!

Stiles realizes he’s still lying halfway across Derek’s lap and with a – totally manly – squeak he scrambles off it, managing to completely land on the floor in the process.

“Ouch,” he pouts and rubs his knee that he apparently banged against something while falling.

A hand stretches out for him and while he doesn’t lose the pout yet, he does let its grinning owner drag him up onto the couch next to him.

“The extra sheets are in the big wardrobe downstairs and I already changed them. And anyways, Laura wouldn’t care. Seriously, I think you’re more excited and _nervous_ than I am and she’s my sister!” Derek teases him.

“Exactly, she’s _your_ sister! And I want to make a good impression!” Stiles exclaims, carefully not examining _why_ exactly he wants to make a good impression on his bodyguard’s sister.

He can practically hear Lydia sing-song “Denial’s not just a river in Egypt, Stiles!”

A hand clasps his shoulder and gently shakes him.

“Relax! She already loves you; you’ve got nothing to worry about! I think she likes you more than me actually and in fact she told me she was coming to see you and that I was here was more of a lucky or unlucky, depending on her mood that day, coincidence. So really, don’t work yourself up unnecessarily. And anyways, she’s only coming tomorrow; we’ve still got plenty of time if anything’s not perfect yet!”

Stiles sighs and petulantly throws himself back into the cushions.

“Ugh, since when do you make sense?”

Derek lets out this adorable snort giggle that sounds like a kitten sneezing. Snort giggle? Giggle snort? Snorting giggle? Giggling snort? Oooohkay, anyways, it’s the sound of kittens and kittens make Stiles melt, it’s got nothing to do with Derek, right? Right.

They just keep sitting next to each other in comfortable silence for a few minutes. Then Stiles can’t take it anymore and he pokes Derek in the side and whines – there really is no other word for it: “I need coooooooffee! Derek, take me to get some coffeeeeeeee.”

Derek smiles at him in that weirdly exasperated but at the same time fond way he has and says: “I don’t think caffeine’s really what you need right now, but sure, I’ll take you out.”

Stiles can feel himself blushing bright red. Does that man not listen to his own words? Granted, he doesn’t have a lot of experience talking, but you’d think that made him more aware of what he says? But nooooo, he has to go and say stuff like that, which makes Stiles imagine things!

Derek seems to be oblivious to Stiles’ plight and just drags him up.

“Come on, move then, I’m not going to carry you!”

Stiles pouts and just keeps whining: “But why noooooooooot? Carry me, Derek! Take me into your strong and _manly_ arms!”

He dramatically swoons and paws at Derek’s forearms whose time it is now to blush.

“Oh shut it, you little menace. Now, come on, I thought you wanted coffee?”

“Ooooh, yes, talk dirty to me!” Stiles croons, immensely enjoying teasing Derek.

He suddenly squeals though, because Derek has apparently given up on getting his cooperation and actually picked him up. Derek’s shoulder digs into Stiles’ stomach and each step makes him slide off a tiny bit. The view though, mmhhhmmm. Stiles grins cheekily and when the next step almost makes him slide off, he gasps dramatically “I’m gonna fall off!” and grabs the thing closest to him, which happens to be Derek’s ass. Oops.

Unfortunately, that actually makes him fall off as Derek stumbles over his own feet and lets him slip off his shoulder while trying to regain his balance. The living room’s thankfully lined with carpet, so he doesn’t really hurt himself when he hits the floor.

Derek has the look of a deer caught in the headlights and although his ass hurts Stiles can’t help himself and dissolves into immature giggles.

“Oh my god, you should see your face! It’s like Bambi meeting Godzilla! Does that make me Godzilla?”

Derek closes his eyes and leans his head back as though asking for help from above.

“You know what, I’m going to my room,” he grumbles and turns around.

Stiles gasps loudly and throws himself forward onto his knees. He grabs Derek’s left ankle and almost drags him down to the floor with him.

“Noooo! I’m sorry, I’ll behave, I promise, I’ll be good! We can go to the place that has your peppermint tea and I won’t even tease you! Not even a little bit!”

When Derek turns back around, he’s face with two big brown eyes framed by long dark lashes blinking up at him and staring earnestly.

“Pretty please with a cherry on top?”

And a little pout joins the eyes.

Derek sighs. “Okay, up you get, but I’m serious, behave or I’m gonna tell your dad about that time you wanted me to throw away a textbook!”

Stiles quickly scrambles to his feet and says: “I’m up, I’m up! And I’ll be good, honestly! But that threat wouldn’t work anyways, my dad already knows, he had to pay my new one after all. Now come on, lazy bones, sweet, sweet caffeine’s calling of me!”

And with that and a cheeky grin he dashed out of the room, narrowly avoiding Derek’s swat aimed at him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for making you wait again!
> 
> This didn't really go as I wanted it to... instead of action it's all awkward flirting and teasing...
> 
> As always, unbetad, so please tell me about any mistakes you find!
> 
> And come bother me on [tumblr](http://www.thedaughterofkings.tumblr.com)!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, I am so sorry for the long wait but real life got in the way... I promise I'll at least try not to take as long between updates again and I definitely promise I won't abandon this fic! I will see it through; however long it takes me!
> 
> Secondly, you might notice a vast improvement in my writing and that is all thanks to the two wonderful people who offered to beta read it for me: renleigh [dadgenes](http://dadgenes.tumblr.com/) and [asterekshipperslife](http://asterekshipperslife.tumblr.com/)!  
> Thank you both so much!
> 
> Lastly, as always, I'd love to hear what you thought, either on here or on [tumblr](http://thedaughterofkings.tumblr.com/)!

Stiles doesn’t stop chattering at all, while they’re making their way over from the car to the café . That in itself is nothing new, but his conversation – if it can be called that – is even more all over the place than it usually is. Consequently, Derek catches his arm and drags him back when he almost runs to the counter, his order for what is probably the drink with the most sugar and caffeine on offer already on his lips. 

“He’ll have a small decaf, please, and for me a peppermint tea, thank you.”

The barista is evidently one that has met Stiles before, because she ignores his spluttering and waving from where Derek is still pushing him back with one arm and quickly makes their orders.

Derek pays, takes their drinks, and thanks her again. He hands Stiles his coffee and pushes him gently towards their usual table at the back. 

Stiles has finally stopped complaining out loud, but his pronounced pout tells Derek loudly enough that Stiles is not happy with him right now.

“That’s so unfair! I let you have the peppermint thing!”

Okay, so much for the keeping silent part. Derek bites his lip to keep from grinning, but judging by Stiles’ enraged draw of breath and the following tirade on the properties of coffee and that “beverage from hell that doesn’t deserve to be called coffee!” he wasn’t very successful at hiding his amusement.

He sips at his tea to hide his smile and sort of listens with half an ear to Stiles – sometimes his rants completely switch topics halfway through – while he routinely checks out the rest of the café. Nothing seems out of the ordinary, but then he sees her again. Kate is leaning against the wall not too far away from their table, sipping from her paper cup, and smirking nastily. When she catches him staring at her, he quickly ducks away and has to suppress the instinct to hide from her gaze. Although he can’t see it anymore, Derek imagines he can still feel it, like a slimy caress down his back. 

While his attention has been diverted, Stiles has indeed switched topics and is now talking about Laura’s imminent arrival.

“I’m just nervous, you know? I want her to like me! You talk about her so much, well, as much as you talk about anything, but really, what if she doesn’t like me! I know I’ve been extra annoying lately, but that’s because she’s coming today! And what if I’m even worse when she’s here and she’ll hate me! Derek!! You love her and she’s going to hate me! And she’s mmph!!!”

Derek had slapped a hand over Stiles’ mouth and just stared until he stopped trying to talk anyways.

“She already loves you; you’ve got nothing to worry about. And she already likes you far better than she likes me, so stop it with the drama already. And now drink up, we have to leave.”

He takes his hand back, wipes it on a napkin where Stiles licked it to try to make him let go. Naturally, Stiles immediately starts talking again.

“Well, I’m obviously prettier than you, so of course she has to love me more! But seriously, why do we have to go? She doesn’t arrive until eight tonight, so you’ve got about three more hours until you actually have to drive to pick her up! What’s the emergency?”

Derek glares and stands up, dragging Stiles with him. He doesn’t dare look at Kate again.

“We just have to go, now come!”

Stiles seems to have realized that he’s serious and actually comes along quietly, though he makes a quick grab for their abandoned drinks first.

They don’t talk until they’re back at the car again. Derek makes Stiles stand with his back against the wall next to it while he quickly inspects it, looking for any signs that the car had been tampered with. He checks that all the doors are properly closed, that there are no scratch marks that could come from a lock being broken and that there’s nothing hidden behind the wheels or underneath the car.

Once he’s satisfied, he packs Stiles whose hands have visibly tightened their grip on the drinks by now into the passenger seat and quickly peals away from the sidewalk. 

Their drive back home is tense. Neither of them talks and it's not one of the comfortable silences they’ve shared in the past either. It's strained and from the corner of his eyes, Derek sees Stiles open his mouth several times. But he never actually says anything and just keeps throwing glances at Derek. Derek mostly ignores him and keeps driving as quickly as he can while not breaking any laws and checks the back mirror as often as he dares let his eyes leave the road ahead of them.

He only breaks the silence when they’ve safely made it back.

“Will your dad be home tonight? Or can you call him or Lydia or someone to stay with you?”

“He said he’d be home today, yeah, because he wants to meet Laura too and because he apparently doesn’t trust us to greet her properly. Why? What’s going on, Derek? You are seriously starting to freak me out.”

Derek sighs deeply and passes a hand over his face.

“I’m sorry; it’s probably nothing, I just, I just want to make sure...”

Stiles pats his arm gently and unbuckles both of their seat belts.

“Okay, come on, let’s get inside and you can drink the rest of your peppermint tea and explain what the hell freaked you out so much that you had to freak me out in turn. And if it makes you feel better, I can call my dad and ask him to be home before you have to leave.”

Derek nods and musters up a small smile, which Stiles returns with a big grin and another pat.

“In we go, big guy.”

 

\-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----

 

Once they’re inside, Stiles puts down their drinks on the couch table and turns towards Derek, who’s sitting down slowly at the other end of the couch. He looks as though he’s prepared to jump up at the slightest sign of a threat. Stiles pulls his knees up to his chest and rests his head on them.

“Relax and tell uncle Stiles, what’s wrong!”

Derek groans loudly and rolls his eyes, but his body relaxes slightly. Stiles hides a little smile behind his knees. He knew Derek didn’t hate his jokes as much as he pretended to.

“Shut up, Stiles.” The comeback is halfhearted at best and Derek quickly becomes serious again. He takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly before he starts.

“Okay, I know it sounds ridiculous and I’m probably making a far too big deal about it, but…” He stops for a moment and seems to search for the right words. Stiles just wants to hug him and tell him everything’s going to be alright. Instead, he slides forward so he’s closer to Derek, and curls up his knees underneath him. He only has to lean forward slightly now to put his hand on Derek’s knee. 

“Just tell me, okay?”

Derek nods and starts again.

“Do you remember the woman at the coffee shop earlier? A blonde, leaning against the wall just slightly past our table?”

“I … think so?” Stiles answers slowly, trying to remember her clearly. He hadn’t really looked around the café; he’d been so preoccupied with Derek and the decaf.

“I don’t have proof, or really anything, but I think she might be a threat.” Derek continues. 

Stiles swallows thickly, because, yes, he has a bodyguard, but there really hasn’t been anything to guard him from. And while Matt’s stalking tendencies and the messages were creepy bordering on scary, he hadn’t truly felt in danger. But this,  whatever seems to be bothering Derek, scaring him even, scares Stiles as well for the first time.

“Why do you think she’s a threat? Did she say or do anything?”

Derek shakes his head.

“No, not really, nothing I could use against her anyways; that’s what makes it so frustrating.” He says. “It’s just; you know that saying your father likes? Once is chance, twice is a coincidence, three times is a pattern? It’s just that I’ve seen her several times in that café now, and lately around campus as well, and she’s too old to still be a student, and she doesn’t look like a professor either. And she always seems to be very focused on us and she’s actually approached me twice already.”

Stiles frowns.

“She tried to talk to you? What did she want?”

Oh god, Derek actually starts blushing at that. He also seems to be getting more and more frustrated.

“She, she hit on me, okay? But in a really, really creepy way. Like sort of … calling me ‘daddy’ but for real, and for – you know – but sort of backwards!”

He stares at Stiles as though he expects him to magically get what he tried to say with that ridiculous sentence. Stiles stares back and cocks an eyebrow.

“She wanted _you_ to call _her_ ‘daddy?” 

Seriously, that’s the best he could get from that. 

Derek obviously doesn’t think it’s good enough, and groans loudly again.

“God, no! No! She, she was just really condescending and, you know, _forward_ at the same time. She, like, called me ‘puppy’ and then inquired about my dick size in the next sentence!”

Stiles can’t stop himself from glancing down.

“She… thinks you have a small dick? Like a puppy?”

Derek is blushing bright red by now. He hides his face and mumbles something into his hands. 

“What? Speak up, Derek, don’t mumble!” 

Stiles has to admit he is enjoying himself now. A flustered Derek is remarkably adorable.

Derek raises his head and though his cheeks are bright red, he stares right into Stiles’ eyes and clearly says: “No, she wants to call me puppy while riding my big dick.”

Stiles feels his head getting hot and he can’t help imagining someone riding Derek and oh god, he must be beet-red by now. But a glance back up at Derek and his glowing ears finally makes him crack up.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry! At least I didn’t promise I wouldn’t laugh,” Stiles presses out between guffaws. “But you’re like – terrified – of a girl who hit on you! Okay, I admit she sounds creepy as hell, but still!”

With that he dissolves into giggles again. He’s just glad that Derek doesn’t seem to be offended, even though he’s still quite red and doesn’t laugh with him. But he has this abashed little smile on his face that makes Stiles want to just squish his little face.

He calms down again soon and just smiles back at Derek gently.

“Seriously, dude, she does sound scary, so I’m honestly sorry I laughed. But it really doesn’t sound as though she’s after me, you know? So, don’t worry, I’ll be fine. You just get Laura and I’ll be waiting here all safe and sound with my dad, the ex-sheriff!”

Derek doesn’t look entirely convinced but he doesn’t look as though he’s about to reverse flip through a window anymore either so Stiles is counting that as a win. 

His phone chimes and he has to look away from Derek for a moment to check the message.

It’s good news, thankfully. He looks back up at Derek, who has tensed up again of course.

“It’s my dad; he’s on his way now. Is there anything else we have to do before Laura comes? Because by the time dad has made it home, it’ll probably be about time for you to leave.”

Derek doesn’t react much except for a quick jerk of his head, which might mean anything. 

Stiles sighs and mumbles: “She really did a number on you, didn’t she?”

He leans forward and grabs both of their drinks from the table again.

“Here, it’s probably cold by now, but it’ll hopefully still help. Let’s just finish our drinks and try to forget about the stalker lady, okay?” 

He hands Derek his tea, who takes it and inhales deeply before taking a sip. Stiles sinks back further into the pillows and takes a sip from his drink as well, suppressing a little shudder. Ugh, cold coffee. And there isn't even any caffeine in it! Really, the things he does for this man. 


End file.
